Tomac stiffened as if I’d hit a nerve. Ainsley struggled to get away, but Tomac held her tight.
“You believe we’ve been stopped?” she said icily. “Even as we stand here, the coven is exacting its revenge. Human nature is no match for the centuries we’ve spent learning to manipulate true nature.”
Her words stunned me. What was going on out there? Is that why the coven wasn’t in the cavern? Were they going after the kids who had escaped from the gym?
* * *
THE CIRCLE OF WOLVES grew tighter around Lu and Nate. The animals’ low growls joined to create the sound of an infernal engine that was slowly powering up.
“Have to admit,” Martin said, “I’m thrilled you’re going to be the first victim, Christmas. I really don’t like you.”
“What did you get me into?” Nate whined to Lu.
Lu took a defiant step closer to Martin.
“What about your high priestess?” she said boldly. “She didn’t go through with the plan.”
Martin shrugged. “She’ll still serve her purpose. Our powers grew within her for years and we’ll get them back a hundred times more potent…at the moment of her sacrifice.”
Lu looked shaken. She took a step back toward Nate and whispered, “Start the motor.”
Nate was too frightened to move.
“Do it,” Lu seethed under her breath.
Nate snapped back into the moment. He jumped onto his ATV and fired up the engine.
Martin laughed. “Really? How far do you think you’ll get?”
Lu glanced back at the pile of rocks that concealed the entrance to the cavern. Marcus was still down there. No signal had been given. If she and Nate took off, Marcus would be crushed beneath a ton of rocks. But if they didn’t at least try to escape there would be no hope of destroying the altar. The coven would be more powerful than ever, and there was no telling how many kids at the school would be hunted down and attacked by the pack of angry wolves.
“What do I do?” Nate whined.
* * *
I looked to the altar and saw dozens of tiny spirit faces staring back at me from the flames. They were in total command. The coven was about to get its revenge and all I could do was stand there…
…with a rope attached to the rotten pillars that could bring the whole thing down. Only trouble was, it would all come down on Ainsley and me.
I grabbed the silver dagger off the altar and held it out toward Tomac threateningly. It was a totally desperate move. I had no idea what to do with it.
“Let her go” were the only lame words I could come up with.
Tomac’s reaction surprised me. She looked shaken. Seriously shaken. Huh? No way she believed I could do any real damage with that knife.
“Put that down,” she commanded in a shaky voice.
She was truly rattled. Which made me think there might be a lot more to this knife than I thought. It was the key tool she had used during their ceremony. It was the only magical item on the table that didn’t hold a witch’s spirit. Did this thing have power of its own? I didn’t put it down. Instead, I held the dagger up higher.
“I said, let her go.” I spoke with more authority this time.
“And I said put it down,” Tomac commanded, though her voice was quivering.
Up until that moment, Tomac had shown nothing but confidence. Now she was nervous as all heck. It had to be the dagger, because she sure wasn’t afraid of me.
“Let Ainsley go,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
“She stays,” Tomac replied. “But you can save yourself. Put that down and I’ll allow you to return to your little library.”
I looked at my own reflection in the dagger’s silver blade. I definitely had some control. No way I was giving it up.
“Maybe I should take this with me,” I taunted her.
“No!” Tomac screamed. “You will suffer for desecrating the totem!”
Totem? Interesting.
“This thing means a lot to you, huh?” I asked.
Tomac didn’t reply, but her eyes said it all.
“If I’m in trouble for messing with it, I might as well make this worthwhile.”
I gingerly grasped the tip of the blade in one hand while firmly holding the handle with the other.
“Stop,” Tomac hissed through clenched teeth.
I raised the dagger over my head.
“You will not!” Tomac screamed.
“Yeah I will,” I replied.
She let go of Ainsley and lunged at me.
I brought the dagger down hard on the edge of the altar. The moment the blade hit the stone, it snapped in two…
…and the world went insane.
Tomac let out a guttural cry as if I’d broken the knife on her head. She fell to her knees in anguish.
Ainsley ran to me, grabbed my arm, and held tight. We backed away from the altar as the candle flames glowed brighter. Each individual flame lifted up off its wick and floated toward the ceiling. The faces of the witches within them were contorted with expressions of agony, the same as Tomac’s.
Whatever this knife was, whatever dark magic it held, it connected the entire coven.
Until I broke it.
* * *
THE WOLVES STOPPED MOVING.
Martin froze, as if he had been hit by a shot of electricity. He stood still for a moment, then dropped to the ground, writhing in torment.
“What the—?” Nate mumbled.
The wolves backed off and they too fell to the ground, pawing at their ears as if listening to a shrill, painful dog whistle. They all wailed out a chilling sound that was somewhere between a howl and a human cry of agony.
Martin continued writhing in the dirt. His body twisted and cracked until it had transformed into a white wolf.
“Oh, that’s not right!” Nate cried in shock.
Lu scrambled back up onto the rock pile.
“Marcus!” she screamed. “Get out of there!”
* * *
Ainsley and I stood mesmerized by the sight of the glowing, pained faces that rose toward the cavern’s ceiling.
“Look!” Ainsley said, pulling my arm and gesturing at Tomac.
The witch was transforming. Her body first turned to shadow, then changed shape, and began to glow. Within seconds she had turned into a floating orb of light like all the others. As it rose toward the ceiling, I could see Tomac’s face within the light, staring down at me in anguish and anger.
“Marcus! Get out of there!” came a voice from nowhere.
“Who is that?” Ainsley asked.
“Lu!” I exclaimed. Her voice brought me back into the moment. “We gotta go.”
I pulled Ainsley toward the stairs.
* * *
THE WOLVES CONTINUED TO writhe in pain but fell silent as their twisted bodies turned to shadow and lifted off the ground, only to transform again. Light sprang from the center of each shadow, enveloping it and turning it into a floating flame. Within the flames, the witches’ faces could be seen, contorted in misery.
* * *
I ran across the cavern, pulling Ainsley along, desperate to get out of there.
“Do it, Lu!” I screamed. “Go, go, go!”
* * *
THAT WAS THE SIGNAL.
Lu bounded down off the rocks, headed for the ATV.
“Go!” she screamed at Nate. “Now!”
Nate didn’t have to be told twice. The moment Lu landed on the back of the ATV, he hit the throttle and the bike launched forward. The rope went taut, and held the bike back.
“Not enough power!” Nate called over the engine’s whine.
The two rear wheels spun in the dirt as the front wheel lifted off the ground. The bike strained against the rope but didn’t move.
“Oh my God, look!” Lu screamed.
The floating lights transformed once again. Each glowing flame was snuffed out as the witches took on a new form.
“White ravens,” Lu gasped.<
br />
Every last flame turned into a huge white bird. The flock drew together, flew high above the clearing, then, as if choreographed, swooped down as one, headed toward Lu and Nate. The two ducked as the flock swept over their heads and continued toward the rock pile.
The witches had regained control.
“They’re going for the hollow!” Lu exclaimed.
The flock flew tightly together, like a white-feathered missile. They rose above the boulders, then dove again and disappeared into the cave.
At that exact moment, the tires of the ATV finally caught. The front wheel hit the ground and the bike shot forward.
“Yeah!” Nate shouted.
* * *
As Ainsley and I ran across the cavern, I saw the rope go taut. Yes! But the pillars held. The bike wasn’t powerful enough to break the first one. The way I had looped them together, if the first one didn’t break, the others wouldn’t even get the chance.
“Keep going, get out of here!” I shouted to Ainsley. I pushed her toward the stairs, and then rushed to the first column.
The rope was as tight as a guitar string. Nate must have been gunning the engine, but it still wasn’t enough. I kicked at the pillar with my heel. The wood was soft, but it wasn’t giving up. Not without a fight. I gave it a few more kicks and heard a crack. It was going to go.
“Marcus, c’mon!” Ainsley wailed.
She hadn’t left.
I continued kicking at the pillar.
“Just…one…more—”
Bang!
The column cracked at its base and was yanked away. Once it was loose, the energy of the rope was transferred to the next in line. It wasn’t as strong, and it pulled away instantly. The dominoes were falling.
Dirt and gravel rained down. The ceiling was about to collapse.
I ran back to Ainsley.
“We’re outta here!” I screamed, and pushed her toward the stairs.
We didn’t get far.
Before we made it through the archway, a flock of screeching white ravens came flying down from above.
Ainsley screamed and pushed me back into the cavern.
The angry birds filled the hollow, screeching and wailing while diving at us.
The flames that had been hovering over the unholy site winked out as each of the floating witches turned into a raven. Whatever magic was broken with the dagger, the witches had found a way to fight past it by transforming into the hideous birds. The cavern was filled with a blur of white chaos…
…while, one after another, the wooden pillars were torn from their bases. They slammed into one another like bowling pins as the rope yanked them across the dirt floor. Ainsley and I had to dive out of the way or we would have been cut down by the careening lengths of wood and the rope that was pulling them along.
It was exactly what I had hoped for.
The ceiling collapsed.
Dirt and rocks fell all around us.
The flock of white ravens flew up in a desperate attempt to hold back the avalanche. They squawked and screamed and tried to join together, but all they managed to do was get hit by tumbling rocks. It was useless. The seat of the coven’s power, its altar, was about to be buried.
And we were going to be buried along with it. I grabbed Ainsley’s hand and started back for the stairs but stopped when I saw a frightening sight, something I hadn’t counted on. The beams that had been dragged across the ground were jammed up in the archway, blocking the way out. The exit was sealed.
We were trapped.
I went into brain lock. There was nowhere to hide from the falling debris. In seconds we’d be buried, along with the coven of the Black Moon Circle.
“Come on!” Ainsley screamed.
She pulled me in the opposite direction from the blocked stairs, deeper into the cavern.
“No! What are you doing?” I yelled, near panic.
“The tunnel to the school!” she yelled back.
It was the first clear thought she’d had that entire day, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
We dodged through the mayhem as rocks and timber crashed down around us and the white ravens squawked overhead. As we passed the altar, a massive boulder fell from above and landed squarely on top of it. The stone legs blew out; the altar cracked in two and crumbled under a deluge of dirt and rocks, along with every last enchanted item the witches used to cast their spells and spread their evil.
I was hit on the shoulder by a falling stone, which brought me right back into the moment, and the danger we were still in.
“Keep moving!” Ainsley commanded.
We each held up one arm to protect our heads while holding hands to stay together. We made it to the tunnel and ducked through the archway but didn’t stop there. There was no way to know if the destruction would continue and collapse the ancient passage between the hollow and the school. So we kept running. It was pitch dark, but better to fly blind than to be caught in the maelstrom. The farther we got, the fainter the sound of the collapsing cavern became. But we kept moving until the moment when we heard an earth-shattering crash that signaled the final implosion of the coven’s hollow. The force of the crash was so violent that the ground shook. We stopped, held on to the wall to get our balance, and waited.
The sound of falling rocks ended. Nothing was coming down on our heads. We were in total darkness surrounded by eerie silence.
“Are you okay?” I finally asked, gulping air.
“Marcus?” Ainsley said, just as winded.
“Yeah?”
“Good. I thought that was you.”
“Uhhh…who else would it be?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Where are we?”
“In the tunnel between the cavern and the school.”
“The what?” she asked, sounding totally surprised.
“The tunnel,” I replied. “You know. The same tunnel Tomac brought you through.”
“Ms. Tomac?” Ainsley asked. “The librarian?”
“Yes! Don’t you remember?”
There was a long moment of dark silence until Ainsley said, “No. I don’t. I don’t have any idea how I got here.”
And with that, Ainsley’s connection to the Black Moon Circle—and any memory of it—was gone.
Forever.
Ainsley and I made our way back through the dark tunnel to the basement of the school.
It was slow going because we had to feel our way along in the dark. She didn’t say a word or ask about anything that had happened. I think she was stunned into silence. Just as well. I didn’t know what to say to her anyway.
I couldn’t imagine what we would find back at the school. There was no way to know how far the Black Moon Circle had gotten with its evil plan before we destroyed the altar. Part of me didn’t want to know. I was afraid that things might be pretty ugly.
After what seemed like hours, we finally saw light ahead of us. We had passed through the archway from the ancient tunnel and into the old foundation of the school, where a couple of overhead lightbulbs were burning.
“I’m really scared, Marcus,” Ainsley finally said.
“Don’t be,” I said reassuringly. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
I’m not sure if I was trying to convince her or myself.
We climbed up out of the basement and headed straight for the gym. The lights were on, but they were dim. The school must have been using an emergency generator. It made the already spooky, ancient corridors even creepier. My heart started pounding hard as we drew closer to the gym, because I truly feared the worst.
Ainsley stuck to me like a magnet. She gripped my arm with both hands and peered over my shoulder as if I could offer some sort of protection.
When we entered the gym, we were faced with a scene of total destruction. The glass in all the windows near the ceiling had blown out. The gym floor looked more like a battlefield than a basketball court. Huge chunks of granite, pushed up from below, reached nearly all the way to the ceili
ng. Several chasms dropped down to who knows how deep. Most of the wooden floor was nothing more than a jumble of splinters. The impossible scene was made all the more so because of the eerie silence.
What we didn’t see were people. It gave me hope that everyone had gotten out safely.
“Dude!” came a shaky voice.
We spun toward the stage, where the sound equipment was set up. From behind a large speaker, the DJ peered at us with wide, frightened eyes.
“Gotta hand it to you,” he said, his voice shaking. “You guys really know how to throw a Halloween party.”
I might think back and laugh at that someday. But probably not.
Ainsley surveyed the carnage, totally bewildered, and asked the obvious question: “What happened?”
How was I supposed to answer that? If she truly had no memory of the witches, it wasn’t something I could sum up in one quick and neat answer.
“I’m not sure,” I answered noncommittally. “Let’s get outside.”
We carefully picked our way across the destroyed gym to the main exit. As we got closer to the doors, we heard noises. There was life outside. We heard people talking, car doors slamming, distant sirens, and the squawk of walkie-talkies. We made it to the exit and looked out onto the parking lot, which was a scene of organized chaos. Emergency vehicles were everywhere. Fire engines, ambulances, and police cars filled the lot, their blue and red lights flashing.
Kids in costume were scattered about. Some were huddled together and crying while just as many wandered around aimlessly, as if in shock. Others were gathered in groups, recounting their experiences with adrenaline-fueled enthusiasm. Many kids were being treated by emergency medical people. There were a lot of bandages and temporary splints, but I didn’t see any truly horrible injuries…or covered bodies on stretchers. My hopes rose that nobody had been seriously hurt or killed.
Black Moon Rising (The Library Book 2) Page 18